I thought I'd go more in to detail. I've had this odd obsession with the tensile strength of a string for years. It started with guitar than quickly spread to other instruments. If you been following me closely you probably could tell I have a fixation with strings. Six years I was hyped about getting 12 string guitar for Christmas. I could't stop thinking about it. I've tested strings on classical and steel guitar,upright and regular bass,mandolin,violin,cello,autoharp and ukelele.I pretty much tested strings on any stringed intrument I can get my hands on.
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My weird obsession with tension on stringed intruments
- Thread starter GC34
- Start date
Bumping this. It looks like my obsession is getting more notice on here. It started when I loosed the g string on an acoustic guitar and it broke.Must of been an old string. The curiosity might be even go further back,but it took off when I snapped the g string. I always wanted to know how high each string can tune too. It's hard to explain.
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Ah, so are you saying you're on the spectrum?
So it isn't trying to know how far you can tighten a string because it serves some other purpose, but simply a fascination with the question of how far you can tighten a string, period.
Both. The purpose is to find out how many notes away is the string from breaking from standard.
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My guess would be that there is a large margin between the as-specified note pitch and the tensile breaking point of the string. Say a string is 130 lbs when at pitch. I'd be guessing it has at least a 30% or 40% margin. So add another 30% to 40% to reach the snapping point. Maybe more. Maybe 50%.
Or to put it another way, I'd be really surprised if a string was at 80% of the the way to the breaking point when tuned to pitch.
Of course if the string has that much margin, then tuning it to the breaking point may over-stress the truss rod / neck and they may fail first.
Or to put it another way, I'd be really surprised if a string was at 80% of the the way to the breaking point when tuned to pitch.
Of course if the string has that much margin, then tuning it to the breaking point may over-stress the truss rod / neck and they may fail first.
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The thicker strings of most stringed intruments are about 30 to 40% of the way. That translate to about eight to twelve notes away from breakage. Thinner ones are 50 to 80%,which is about two to five notes away.
I still think the worrisome part of this is the neck. If a string breaks, a string breaks. You spend $5 and put a new one one.
But the neck. I wonder how much a string tension a bass neck can take before it is damaged.
Not trying to give you a new obsession, btw, just thinking out loud
But the neck. I wonder how much a string tension a bass neck can take before it is damaged.
Not trying to give you a new obsession, btw, just thinking out loud
For some reason I'm thinking of ASMR.... Maybe you could start a YouTube channel devoted to videos of gradually uptuning strings until they snap. The launch of a whole new subculture could be waiting!
